Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Julian Assange: Hero or Huckster?

Julian Assange: Hero or Huckster?


By Kevin Probst



Julian Assange has been incrementally releasing a quarter million documents downloaded from the military internet, NIPRNET. Bradley Manning is the United States Army Officer and Intelligence Analyst who allegedly downloaded the material and made it available for Assange to disseminate on his website, Wikileaks.org. Manning claimed responsibility for leaking the "Collateral Murder" video that nearly 10 million people have seen on Youtube.

If Assange releases information that compromises the security of the United States or the lives of U.S. servicemen then he should certainly be prosecuted if that is possible. But, to date, he hasn't released any "top" secret information or any information that hundreds of other Information Specialists haven't had access to.

Assange doesn't seem to have an agenda pertaining to the United States. He seems to resist all governments. He appears to be a genuine anarchist. Of all the information released thus far there hasn't been a single refutation regarding the truthfulness of the information. Hillary Clinton is gallivanting around the world toting her first aid kit in an attempt to stop the bleeding but she isn't declaring that any of the information is false.

The world's most famous anarchist is hated so deeply because he has released true information. His information proves that many of the world's governing elite are people who are dishonest, incompetent, hypocrites and narcissistic egomaniacs. It's not something that most of the population hasn't already suspected but now they have data available to prove their suspicions.

It should not be so surprising that the world's governments are filled with so much corruption. Lord Acton once said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Another famous English politician, William Pitt, said something similar, "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"

Americans are not sitting around biting their finger nails because of new revelations. They know that incompetence and corruption is what has brought us to the brink of financial collapse. Politicians have kept interests rates low so as to have a better shot at being reelected. Poor financial planning and faulty financial policy has made the USA the world's greatest debtor nation. Our credit is ruined and we have successfully saddled future generations with enormous debt. Power hungry politicians have burdened the American people with over-regulation and over-taxation. We are on life support and China is trying to decide whether to pull the plug!

Prominent politicians and influential Americans have called for the assassination of Julian Assange. Yet, most would agree that it would be very difficult to prosecute him because it is unclear what laws have been broken. An immediate court martial is in order for Bradley Manning who plugged his thumb drive into a computer containing classified and protected information for the purpose of dissemination. Why so much hatred for Assange? They hate him because he is revealing truth and the truth hurts.

Is Assange a danger to U.S. citizens? The question might be rather is the policies of an incompetent government dangerous to U.S. citizens? It's shocking to watch government sanctioned sexual molestations in airport security booths. It's shocking to watch the government reach into our pockets and claim our money to be theirs. It's shocking to watch jobs vaporize and disappear over seas because of poor and careless government policy. Who poses the greater danger to American citizens, Assange or his accusers?

Assange isn't going to muster much support among the American citizenry but many Americans are seriously questioning how a lowly army private could download 250,000 classified documents and distribute them to Wikileaks. Bradley Manning should be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law but our government should admit prodigious incompetence when it comes to protecting sensitive information.

Is Assange acting unethically by releasing protected information? That will be debated for some time. Do Americans want to know the truth about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez? Yes they do. In regard to the truth, Michael Levy said, “You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.”




Kevin Probst - Is a teacher of Apologetics and History at Calvary Christian School and Associate Pastor of Crosspointe Nazarene Church church in Columbus, Georgia.

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